Another solution to the SEC’s 9-game argument

Nick Saban is furious.

Nick Saban wants his nine-game SEC schedule, and he’s going to stand on his Crimson Tide-colored soapbox to get it.

Nick Saban wants Alabama to play all 12 games against the big five conferences, and if it means not playing the mighty Georgia State or Chatanooga, then so be it.

But Nick Saban, we’ve got a question: When was the last time Alabama played a major Big Five Conference team in a home-and-home series? The answer was 2010 and 2011, against Penn State (The Tide won both games). Before that in Nick Saban’s career as Alabama coach? None. After? None.

And which school cancelled a home-and-home series against a competitive Big Five school in 2016 and 2017? That would be Alabama.

We’d also like to put it that we think that in Nick Saban’s world, he would LOVE every game against Big Five opponents. But it would darned well suit him to play all the games on neutral venues, like the SEC-friendly Georgia Dome or JerryWorld in Arlington. Or in Tuscaloosa.

I can’t wait for Wisconsin vs Alabama in 2016….but I wish the game was a home-and-home in Madison and Tuscaloosa rather than Jerryworld, a stadium which we in the SEC are going to get really, really bored of by Season 30.

But that’ll happen when our schools sell their soul.

Alabama fans will yell at you and say: “We’re not afraid of playing ANYONE”, and I would nod and say: “I would have loved to see Alabama go waste Michigan State in East Lansing. But they cancelled that.”

What really needs to change to have the best of both worlds (an 8 game SEC schedule which includes permanent opponents so we don’t do away with all-important historical games like Georgia and Auburn; as well a schedule that’s not thumped by the Play-Off Committee), is the Play-Off Committee itself.

If they changed the RPI of the games, so teams that play out of conference games at neutral venues (therefore not penalizing Texas A&M vs Arkansas or more importantly, Texas vs Oklahoma) get their butts handed to them. 

Or alternatively, Nick Saban should tell Bill Battle to play more home-and-home series.

That’ll give Nick Saban the sorts of games he wants.